Tag Archives: refuelling

Force India driver Vitantonio Liuzzi has spoken about the effects of driving a car which is fully leaden with fuel, because of the refuelling ban.

He claimed that the difference between low and heavy fuel loads were “like a Lotus Elise and a bus!” He said:

“When it’s full of fuel everything’s lazier – the steering, the brakes, changing direction. It was very hard to drive it in the wet with a full fuel load.”

“It will be more challenging for the teams and the drivers – and good for the show.”

“It’s a drastic change. The drivers will have to take care of their cars more this year. There will have to be more communication between the driver and team. But I like having more things to handle like that.”

This year, we will see a huge variant in driving across the race. Tyres, brakes and engines will now have to be managed differently now, because of the lack of refuelling.

Force India’s design director, Mark Smith, said that the teams will have to use harder brake materials this year, to cope with the higher pressure of having to stop a heavier car throughout the race. However, it will be difficult, as maximum brake sizes remain the same as last year.

Red Bull aerodynamicist Adrian Newey says that the potential banning of the double-decker diffusers in 2011 will not help overtaking in F1.

Talking at the Watkins Lecture at Autosport International, he said:

“I don’t think [double diffusers] affected the overtaking. It gave us more downforce and made the cars about a second a lap quicker. That doesn’t change whether the car’s going to overtake or not, there’s no difference in the aerodynamic wake which is what affects the ability of the car behind to overtake.”

Also, he believes that the sport should not get back into the habit of “piecemeal modifications” during the 1998-2008 technical era:

“The regulations we had for 2009 were the subject of a lot of research by the Overtaking Working Group. It’s questionable whether they worked or not, but the process, I think, was correct.”

“What’s now happening is we’ve gone back to these piecemeal modifications – banning double diffusers or getting rid of barge boards. For me, it’s very frustrating that it’s not being thought out. [It needs] a clear goal and proper research.”

“So often in Formula 1, things are changed with very little research.”

Also, he has concerns about the banning of refuelling for the 2010 season:

“I think the ban on refuelling is another example of that where… maybe it will be good for the racing, but it was not thought out. Some people thought “we could save a £100,000 here by cutting the cost of flying the refuelling rigs around the world. But if that destroys the spectacle and the racing becomes more boring as a result of that and people start turning their televisions off, then that wasn’t £100,000 well saved.”